Why President Obama Is Also the Leader in Likes and Retweets

Politicians and social media–the two have become so intertwined over the past decade that a weak social media presence can sink an entire election. Social media analytics experts SocialBakers have released a study showing that President Obama is dominating Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the social media game. Obama’s clear victory over Romney on Facebook and Twitter doesn’t mean victory for either side, but having a strong foothold in the preferred outlets of the web generation is never a bad thing to have.

SocialBakers measured Obama’s viral reach by combining his total number of Facebook “likes” with the average number of friends per user. The end result concluded that Obama has a 25% stronger viral reach than Romney. Currently, Obama’s Facebook page boasts over 27 million “likes” while Romney’s page has fewer than 2 million “likes” (cue sad fanfare.)

What is it about Barry’s social media presence that interests the nation this much? Is it his natural charisma and charm? Or perhaps it is his continual efforts to appeal to the nation’s youth. SocialBaker’s study covers most of these topics in their study, but in reality, what it really comes down to is sheer volume.

At the end of the day, people who like Obama are going to “like” and retweet just about anything his social media team puts out there. It doesn’t matter if it is interesting or not–people will talk about it. There is a Pinterest “Pin” of Obama petting his dog that has 246 likes, 22 comments and 274 “repins.” I don’t know about you, but if I pinned a photo of me petting one of my dozens of cats, my likes would climb into the negatives. It just comes down to the fact that Obama’s social media team is out there posting and tweeting more than any other presidential nominee.

SocialBakers have also created an infographic that covers the study of presidential social media reach. Obama’s Facebook activity includes over 2,800 posts, 4,400 status updates and 278 albums; while Romney only has 826 links, 512 photos and 236 video posts. In the end, Obama’s social media strength is strength in numbers. You can check out the infographic and SocialBaker’s study here.

What do you think is the secret to Obama’s social media success? Make some noise below.